DanSeDialogueS 2014 : Our Solitudes

We had reached early in anticipation of this unique dance show in which the danseuse would be moving in mid- air, balanced with weights suspended from above. Having heard so much about this show, I sneaked in to get a preview (there are some advantages of being a teacher at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore and being a good friend of the current cultural co-coordinator). What I saw, not just reassured me that it was a good decision to attend this show in the middle of the week, fighting peak hour traffic to get there on time, it made me scamper out in excitement to tell my friends that this was a show we weren’t going to forget any time soon!

Harnessed by leather bracelets, Julie gradually rose up from the floor, using her arms to manipulate the weights and pull herself up, defying gravity, to move suspended in mid-air to Alexandre Meyer’s music. Reticent at first, she moved from a fetal position, gradually unfurling herself to wake up to the sights and sounds of the world. She had barely started swinging in mid-air, exploring the world around her, that she stopped. Her expression blank, suspended in mid-air in a complete silence, in a universe encumbered by weights, she forced the audience to face the void in their life. And then she started moving again, like a carefree child who had overcome that difficult phase in life, moving higher and higher till she was one with the weights above her.

Master of the weights or a puppet in their hands? The weights and the Julie seemed to move in harmony as her movements gained momentum and she swung across the stage like poetry in motion.

We couldn’t help but marvel at the ease with which she seemed to be pulling the ropes attached to the weights and walked out awe-struck at the ingenuity of the mind that conceptualized such a show and the power in the arms that made the weights yield to her command and allowed her to fly.